Busy Day At Newbury

There are now only three meetings taking place this afternoon following the abandonment of Newcastle's National Hunt fixture due to frost.  That leaves us with a jumps card from Newbury and two all-weather flat fixtures from Lingfield and Kempton.  I will be flying off to Newbury today with David, although to be honest I am not much looking forward to the flight...I have never been great with heights and the weather isn't really conducive to a smooth trip!  I drove through a blizzard on Telegraph Hill (just outside of Exeter racecourse) and if Newbury has had any of that the ground is going to be extremely testing for all of the horses.  The stable has six runners today; Brook, Good Value and Classical Art all run in the juvenile hurdle, while All Force Majeure, Smiles For Miles (pictured above) and Chic Theatre make up the rest of our representatives.

The stable had one runner yesterday at Fakenham.  Low Key finished sixth in the maiden hurdle, but it could prove to be an extremely good race - the first two home were both Group race performers on the level and should win plenty more races over hurdles.  Meanwhile Tom Scudamore was among the winners yesterday and now moves onto the 98 winner mark for the season.  Let's hope he doesn't spend too long in the nervous nineties!  Talking of Scu, he is here this morning to school a few - I had better turn the heater on in the jeep...it can certainly get cold down the gallops!

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What a goalkeeper West Ham's Adrian is!  The Hammers managed to scrape through a thrilling F A Cup replay against Everton last night, winning on penalties.  I wonder when the last time was that a goalkeeper saved a penalty and then went on to score the winning goal?

I see that Falcao's agent is saying play him or he will leave.  If I were the Manchester United manager I think I would be helping to pack his bags...his fee and wages are absolutely ridiculous!

While we are on the subject of football, how can England manager Roy Hodgson pick out Mascherano as his European Footballer of the Year in the Ballon d'Or?  Ask anyone with even the smallest football knowledge whether they would rather have Ronaldo, Messi or Mascherano...that is all you need to know about Roy Hodgson.

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Snooker genius Ronnie O'Sullivan equaled Stephen Hendry's record of 775 century breaks in competition yesterday, funny enough it was Hendry's birthday and I don't suppose that is the sort of gift he would have been wanting!  Is O'Sullivan the greatest snooker player of all time?  He certainly gets the sport plenty of much needed publicity.